One of the highly unusual and sometimes downright creepy aspects of this 2008 presidential election cycle is the reverential, almost worshipful treatment of Senator Obama by supporters.  Mark Morford of the SF Chronicle calls Obama an “enlightened being,” and a “lightworker,” and claims this is the reason why the senator is someone with the “appeal, the pull, the ethereal and magical thing that seems to enthrall millions of people from all over the world.”

Now there is a new video, released by Dave Stewart from the UK, American Prayer, which takes this Obama spirituality movement a step further.  While a nice song, the reverence it conveys for a candidate who has done virtually nothing except talk is perhaps the most disturbing thing about the video.  Here is a sample of the lyrics:

This is my American Prayer
This is my American Prayer

This is the time to finish what you started
And this is no time to dream
This is the room
We can turn off the dark tonight
Maybe then we might see

I’m not even sure what this means.  Originally, the song may have been written to honor Martin Luther King Jr.  Dave Stewart co-wrote the song with Bono, whose own tribute to Dr. King, In The Name of Love, is incredibly inspirational.  Stewart later re-oriented the song as a music video to honor Senator Obama.

But the sight of people praying, almost seemingly to Obama himself, is hardly inspirational.  Rather, it’s downright creepy.

What has Senator Obama accomplished to merit such reverence?

I can understand the reverence which we all feel for Dr. King, he changed to course of American history.  Dr. King brought us closer to the ideals outlined in the Constitution than nearly any other person before him.  But Barack Obama has spent about eight years in the Illinois state senate and about three years in Congress.

In that time, Senator Obama has authored no major legislation, shown virtually no leadership in the Senate, and, in fact, has spent most of his first term in Congress on the campaign trail trying to become president.  His words are powerful, but his deeds are virtually non-existent.

So why the reverence?  As they saying goes, “talk is cheap.”

Now Obama is preparing to accept the Democratic nomination at Investco Field tomorrow night on a stage that appears to be either a mockup of the State House, the White House, or a Roman Temple.   It’s almost certainly not meant to be a mockup of a temple, but why invite the comparison in the first place?

This is the kind of thing, held up before a nation that is beginning to pay serious  attention to the coming election, that will sink the Obama candidacy.  Americans aren’t interested in all the hype; rather, they will look on this spectacle and roll their collective eyes.

Do we really need another huge ego in the White House?  Do we really need  a religio-political figure leading the country?

I was reading James Taranto’s Best of The Web Today column and this little snippet caught my attention:

But then we remembered a comment Mrs. Obama made about a year ago in an interview with Glamour:

“We have this ritual in the morning. They come in my bed, and Dad isn’t there–because he’s too snore-y and stinky, they don’t want to ever get into bed with him. But we cuddle up and we talk about everything from what is a period to the big topic of when we get a dog: what kind?”

To me, it sounds as if Michele and Barack do not share a bed, or even the same bedroom.  Not that this is shocking; a lot of professional couples do this so as to be able to go to sleep and wake up based on the demands of their job.

Furthermore, if you look back in American history, most White House couples (as the Obamas hope to be come January of 2009) have separate bedrooms.  This makes sense as presidents often are engaged until late in the evening, must wake up early, and of course, sometimes get those “3am” calls.

Still, it struck me as rather an elite thing.  I know some very successful people, all of whom share the same bedroom and the same bed with their spouses.  The seperate bedrooms trend has become more popular of late, but the whole lovey-dovey theme we hear about the Obamas seems to contrast that “modern upper-class couple” theme that is expressed by comments such as the one above.